ABC15: Phoenix Police kidnapping stats don't add up

A number of Police cases labeled "kidnappings" are facing Federal scrutiny as they appear to be mislabeled.

KNXV

Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

PHOENIX - Phoenix is often called the "kidnapping capital" of the United
States, but what if all the numbers didn't add up?

In 2008, the Phoenix Police Department reported 358 kidnappings
- one almost every day.

For the past two months, the ABC15 Investigators have reviewed
the department's 2008 kidnapping statistics, reading hundreds of
reports and thousands of pages. We also researched court records
and obtained internal memos, e-mails and recordings.

Our investigation found Phoenix Police routinely inflated their
kidnapping statistics throughout the year, including at least 100
cases that legal experts said should not have been counted, plus
dozens of other questionable reports.

Phoenix Police turned down repeated interview requests from us
to talk specifically about the reports. We also reached out to the
City Manager's Office and Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. But both
declined.

But included on that list are cases where officers concluded
no kidnapping occurred, reports that were counted multiple times,
and even reports for kidnappings that happened in other cities and
other states.

When first questioned about the reports by ABC15 late last year,
Phoenix Police said that they fully stand by their numbers. To
address the concerns, Public Safety Manager Jack Harris also wrote
a memo to other city officials.

In that memo , he said that accusations about inflating statistics were
"untrue," and that the reports had been reviewed before.

We asked two former prosecutors to review the merits of dozens
of the cases: Attorneys David Cantor and Kurt Altman.

Cantor is a former City of Phoenix prosecutor and is now a
defense attorney. Altman worked for the Maricopa County Attorney's
Office for 7 years and also the U.S. Attorney's Office.

They said many of the cases weren't "even close" to being
kidnappings and should "never" have been counted.

"I would feel comfortable arguing to a jury that there was an
attempt to pad some stats in this case," Altman said.

Out of all of the reports, there were nearly 60 written for
"information only." That means police couldn't determine if a crime
actually occurred.

Counted on the list, there were also at least 40 reports that
were attempted kidnappings or possible kidnappings.

One of these cases happened near 7th Avenue and Camelback.
Read the report .

According to the report, a woman was walking in a parking lot
when a car pulled up next to her and the driver told her to "get
in." She ran and the car sped off. There was no abduction or
physical contact. But it was counted as a kidnapping.

"To call that a kidnapping is wrong," Cantor said.

Another report described a woman claiming she was abducted from
a Wal-Mart parking lot and then driven around for hours. But when
officers checked surveillance video, they watched her get into her
car and drive away -- alone.
Read the report .

"This was a story she made up," Altman said.

The city also reported the same case three times. There are
three reports for one incident. One of the reports describes the
crime. But the others were created to document vehicle
impounds.

In fact, ABC15 found several reports with no purpose other than
to document a vehicle impound.
See the examples .

Phoenix Police also included a report that was a Glendale case.
The case was a legitimate kidnapping, except it happened in
Glendale and was investigated by Glendale Police. The only tie to
Phoenix was that a Phoenix officer responded to help a Glendale
detective translate for a suspect.